In order to maintain safety on traffic roads and monitor traffic patterns, it is important that vehicles be properly registered and identifiable. As a result, most jurisdictions require that a driver obtain a vehicle identifier, and display the vehicle identifier while using a vehicle. For example, many jurisdictions require that vehicles display a license plate engraved with an alphanumeric vehicle identifier. In order to illegally circumvent these requirements, some drivers use counterfeit license plates with cloned vehicle identifiers. In other words, for example, these drivers utilize license plates that display vehicle identifiers that were issued to another driver and/or vehicle. Drivers using cloned vehicle identifiers may be more likely to violate traffic regulations and illegally offer taxi services, for example, thus endangering the public safety. However, existing technologies have been unable to detect cloned vehicle identifiers efficiently, much less at a scale applicable to the set of vehicle identifiers.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical or similar elements. Additionally, generally, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.